What do you suppose Warren Jensen's (W. Earl Brown) mental ability was in THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY?

Question

Warren Jensen (W. Earl Brown) was Mary's (Cameron Diaz) mentally retarded older brother in the comedy film THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY (1998). There was a funny scene where Warren was looking for his baseball through a crowded high school campus full of students. A couple of male students who want to pick on Warren try to help him out in a certain way. One young man tells him to go to that girl (who calls a baseball a "weiner"). Warren approaches the girl and her boyfriend asking "Have you seen my weiner?". The boyfriend gets pissed with Warren and yells "What did you say to me?", Warren backs up placing his hand on a car, the boyfriend starts physically harming a confused Warren "GET YOUR HAND OFF MY CAR? NOW WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?". What do you suppose Warren's mental ability was (like Sean Penn in I AM SAM playing a single father with the mental ability of a 7-year old like his little daughter)? Please tell me what you know (But no simple answers, be specific!).

Answer 1

The word r****d is both offencive and inappropriate to be used to describe a person. The way a person portrays himself physically is no indication of their mental capabilities. There is no answer, he was acting out a character. Sean Penn played a character like warren yet both had abilities to carry out levels of independence. Sean Penn's character showed insight that many people with no intellect impairment will never achieve

Answer 2

I do not think that this is addressed in the movie, or is actually necessary to know. In actual people, apart from movie characters, taking an age related number to a person just labels the person further. Who's to say what it means to be a person who is 47 with the "mental age" or a four year old? The number doesn't really mean anything. If the person were labeled as having the mental capacity of a 5 year old, they would still be a five year old with 40 years of practice.

Has anyone ever asked you your mental ability? It's not something that is an issue unless someone thinks you've got an issue. So, why bother?

Answer 3

Tutorials-http://tutoringsite.info/

Answer 4

Dominica Mentally Retarded is still the scientific term for someone with an Intellectual Disability and is used in the States to mean a person who has an Intellectual Disability.

Now to answer the question, an age label is usually to do with their cognitive abilities in communication, literany, etc. There are times when someone can have a mental age or say 5 but can do things which normal 5 year old's wouldn't be able to do like catching the bus etc. Look at I am Sam would you expect any normal 7 year old to be working in a coffee shop and doing as well as he was.

From what you've said it sound's like he's probably mild-moderate. He's labelled things with different names to what they are generally like calling his baseball a weiner, but cannot cope on his own when he doesn't understand what's going on like in the situation with the girl's boyfriend at the high school.